After months and months of waiting, with the media and Apple fans feeding off speculation, rumours and the odd information leak, Apple officially killed off its AirPower product on the weekend.

The rare move from Apple led some tech commentators to label it as an embarrassing moment for the consumer tech behemoth.

At its annual iPhone product launch in September 2017, the tech giant touted a forthcoming wireless charging pad called AirPower that promised to simultaneously charge your iPhone, Apple Watch and AirPods.

The charging mat was expected to take wireless charging to a new level, ushering in a new mobile lifestyle less entangled by wires.

Images at the project’s unveiling showed AirPower as a mat where Apple’s iPhone, smartwatch, and AirPods case could be placed together to charge without being plugged in.

The device that was ultimately dead on arrival.Source:AFP

“We can make the wireless charging experience even better,” Apple executive Phil Schiller told the audience in 2017. “It might help move the entire industry forward.”

It was originally slated for 2018 but last year came and went without mention of AirPower from Apple.

On the weekend, Apple admitted defeat, citing an inability to achieve the high standards it expects from its products.

“After much effort, we’ve concluded AirPower will not achieve our high standards and we have cancelled the project,” Apple’s senior vice-president of hardware engineering Dan Riccio said in a statement.

“We continue to believe that the future is wireless and are committed to push the wireless experience forward.”

He also apologised to Apple fans who were looking forward to AirPower.

The AirPower wouldn’t even have made a dent on Apple’s bottom line, but cancelling an announced product, no matter how big or small, is a huge embarrassment. Can’t recall them cancelling an announced device, at least in modern era. Even the white iPhone 4 made it out alive.

This is not just about a charger. It’s about Apple doing something they’ve never done (at least in the last ~20 years): cancel a product that they announced. This after teasing it for 18 months and making it a key part of their revamped iPhone.

Other companies sell charging stands or pads that can be used to wirelessly power up iPhones or other devices compatible with the technology, which is based on a widely used industry standard. So you can still charge compatible iPhones and Apple’s new AirPods 2 with third party charging pads.

Apple reportedly wanted to take the industry standard and built its own tech on top of it to engineer a more sophisticated and more powerful charging pad.